The city was not in good shape. The outer wall had already been breached, but that was somewhat expected. The outer wall is so much rger than the inner wall, so it's harder to prevent a single trated attack from causing a successful breabsp; From what I gathered, there seems to have been a few individuals with good siege magics, which also made the whole ordeal a bit more difficult.

  The city itself was left with about half of our total bat forces, or a little less than five hundred soldiers. They've suffered about 5% casualties in the past few days, which is definitely not what I wao hear. Though from what I gathered, many of those casualties were due to sacrificial attacks to take down the enemy soldiers with siege magics, so it might not be as bad as it sounds.

  Among those taken down, there were individuals who could basically liquify stone and a few who could cause an explosive bst at a moderate distanbsp; A few of the explosive bsters are still alive, but as far as anyone is aware, the ones who broke through the first wall by liquifying the stohus making a gap, are all dead.

  With a much smaller area to defend now, with only the inner wall and citadel left, the defense has returo our favor for the time being. The enemy started out with about 8000 troops, and have lost around a thousand, a catastrophic amount for a normal battle. However, they probably also expect to receive more reinforts from the rest of the isnd over time. My guess is that a few anders are looking to earn points among their superiors by having already captured the outer wall, which is why they were willing to take as many casualties as they did so early.

  The enemy apparently made nd fall around the artificial tide pools, which we deissioned about a month ago. We had stockpiled plenty of preserved foods, and didn't want the eo have an easy source of protein, so all the pools were made to drain away, and all the trapping barriers were removed.

  After getting the gist of the situation, I went to go find Zeb and Zaka, along with one of the dwarven anders and a transtor so we could read the letter I received from the dark elves. Once everyone was gathered, the dwarven ander began to read.

  "This letter is intended for the leadership fighting for the defense of Kembora. If you aren't strategic leadership, and you're reading this letter, please deliver it to whomever is your ander, and have them pass it on to the top level.

  This letter should have been delivered by a dark elf. In short, dark elves frequently work as meraries, but that doesn't mean they 't be paid off. We've frohe moo pay the particur group that is w with the humans off. They'll only funally work as necessary for the humans as to not draw suspi, but if an opportunity arises to turn a major battle, they'll switch sides. This may not be much, but I hope that this at least affords you some opening. Additionally, they'll be providing false information where possible to misinform Rathnd. The dark elves number about 250, but they're quite elite individually. We discuss financial repayment ter, if you survive the attack.

  As further advice, Rathnd's leadership structure is pretty stribsp; If you mao take out their anders, I'd expect the remaining troops will retreat. Until then though, they're quite stubborn, as Rathnd not only punishes deserters, but their families as well. The threat Rathnd poses to their neighbors is enough reason for most of them to also stay and fight with them as long as Rathnd's leadership wills it, which is all the more reason to remove Rathnd's leadership first.

  When this letter was written, it does seem that a bit over 100,000 troops are being amassed to fight you. I'll do what I to keep other nations from joining their cause.

  Best of Luck,

  Elloetta"

  After the dwarven ander finished reading the letter, and the transtor in the room gave us the transtion, we all looked at each other.

  "It's definitely better than nothing." The dwarven aated.

  "Well, it's too bad they weren't there on the beabsp; Holy, that would have been a good opportunity for them..." I respond.

  As I observe the room, it's clear the mood is quite grave. I mean, of course it would be. We're fag an absolutely overwhelming force, even this news doesn't ge that by mubsp; It does give us another out though, and that's really all we hope for.

  After we read the letter, I informed everyone about everything I'd seen at the beach, as well as info on the scouting base I saw. The news of how things went at the beach seemed to improve the mood more thater did.

  Ultimately, discussion turo our stages of a. For now, we're holding our own within the sed wall of the city. The enemy has moved baough that we 't really hit them with siege ons. Which means they're probably waiting for backup to arrive. I doubt they're expeg their backup to be as worn out as it will be though.

  Simir to the situation with the fort at the beach, ns for a retreat from the city as well. Ultimately, we're sacrifig everything to have a ce at victory. On enemy army arrives, we'll gauge how well we hold them off. Ohings seem bad, we'll retreat to our citadel. From there, we'll begin evacuations for all but about fifty troops through the secret escape route. At the same time, a handful of soldiers will be taking the sewer route out towards the beach.

  Ohe majority of the army is out, we'll be sealing and hiding the actual escape tunnel. Our iion is to misdirect the eowards the beastead of up the mountain. We spent a lot of time hiding the dam and reservoir on the mountain. We built rge pilrs within the reservoir, and then capped it off with stohen dirt. We also built up some degree of natural looking rockfa the front side. Unless you know what you're looking at, you probably wouldn't assume it's a reservoir anymore.

  Beyond that, the area around it is boobytrapped far more than anywhere else, and we've dedicated over one hundred persoo the area. Their goal is to bait enemies away from the dam, rather than towards it. Ultimately, we had to do a lot of work moving the road further from the reservoir to prevent actal discovery. We've also slowly been filling the reservoir all year. At this point, it's nearly full.

  I've modified the city's water infrastructure, so if everything else goes acc to pn the io the city handle signifitly more water thalets right now. Ohe eakes the city as fortable, like they did with the fort on the beach, we'll release all the water in the dam, and flood the pbsp; Ultimately, this will probably do more damage to morale and supplies than it will to individuals, but sidering all our other attacks have alseted exactly morale and supplies more than personnel, I'm hoping it proves effective. If this also opens up the opportunity for the dark elves to capture enemy leadership, all the better.

  Having reached an agreement that we'll wait here until the enemy makes their move, I swiftly fell asleep.

  After all the excitement I experie the start of the war, this slow siege has felt like every day passes at a snails pabsp; For a week now we've been holed up waiting for the eo do something. It seems that the enemies' supplies that this side of the isnd have are in much better dition than the supplies that the other side of the isnd was left with. I was starting to worry that I might have misjudged the situation, and that they would, in fact, starve us out, but as of today, a signifitly rge army, likely from the beach, has arrived.

  The new army's dition is quite poor. Their supplies seem limited, and their morale and dition isn't good. It's very clear that our strategy is taking a toll on their average soldier. They spent today reanizing, and it seems like tomorrow they'll make their move on the sed wall. Our double wall structure seems to be discing them from attempting to make any siege engines of their own, as maneuvering them through the outer city would be too difficult.

  Given the qualities of the wood on the isnd, I know first hand that without metal reinfort, you 't make reasonable siege oher, so we don't o worry about any trebuchets attag us. Soon, the stage of our defense ences.